Have to say, the article on Orcsplitter on the dndadventurersleague.org site was way more than I was expecting, but a good way of handling the challenge of 'how do we deal with this item that may cause issues in Organized Play?'
If you're a DM running Princes of the Apocalypse as an AL-legal adventure, read this article!
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Pauper
Excellent idea.
I'm less concerned about Orcsplitter than I am about:
How much XP should be granted for not getting killed by the lich at lvl 5ish (Sacred Stone Monastery)? Full value for a CR 21? Or a lot less, since it's not actually hostile?
Charms granted in Curse of the Fire Witch: What limits, if any, are imposed?
Is Elizar Dryflagon's pipe a magic item?
What are the limits, if any, on the rewards for Rundreth Manor?
That is awesome. Good job making lemonade 
Am I mistaken in assuming that the Harpers would offer all of those choices, and that the character would be able to select one? It doesn't actually say that, but I can't imagine that giving a player all those items is in any way balanced...
Heh... my first read it sounded like you got *all* of those in exchange for Orcsplitter.... I realize it doesn't work that way...
The intent is that you choose one from the list. I will edit the article to be more clear.
Greg Marks
DnDAL Associate Resource Manager
Edit: It has now been edited to reflect this.
So I don't have PotA; I'm dying know what this is more "simple to implement across a multi-table, multi-environment play experience" than, especially given that it makes the rewards are exciting to practically every class, so I anticipate much bickering over who gets it.
Anyone mind giving me a tl;dr on what this replaces?
~ The intelligent weapon Orcsplitter. I won't post its stats here for spoiler reasons, but suffice it to say - while less problematic than hazirawn (due to alignment issues, and a lack of stats in hazirawn's case), its power is still equivalent to said
Very Interesting. THanks for the link. Considering Im just about to start running this soon and am likely to have a Paladin as well as 3 Dwarves in the party this should make for a very interesting issue in game.
Kalani wrote:
Kalani wrote:
This. This is exactly what the new format needs to be like.
NPC has magic item X. After the adventure in the clean up phase a faction offers a trade for equivalent things that they will be super ezcited about getting.
Actually a sorcerer getting 30 new levels of spells known sounds a bit crazy. Am i reading that wrong?
i mean dang....dragonborn Sorcerer with BDM and staff of defense and as many spells known as a wizard, dayum.
Sorcerers, druids, and wizards may be able to *swap* 30 levels of spells but they don't just *get* 30 levels of spells (hoo-boy, that'd be gross!).
It's 1 reward per party, not per character - and definitely not "all these things for your one Orcsplitter", though I can see how people made that leap. Many thanks to Greg for editing for clarity.
As for offering the variety of rewards, I'm not sure that what we see in the article will happen again. If it does, it will be rare and likely only for special cases -- in 5e, magic items are an integral part of the experience, and darn near a character unto themselves in terms of power. This is doubly true when the magic item in question is an intelligent weapon that has deep-seated hatred of another race (Orcsplitter vs orcs, for example, or Hazirawn vs basically everything). The Harpers feel that Orcsplitter is an integral part of dwarven culture and history, and as such they are willing to trade heavily in the character's favor.
Remember, if you're looking to get a wider variety of items you can look up your local RC and ask when they'll be at a show with a Trading Post. Hit up http://dndadventurersleague.org/sage/index.php?title=Administrators for the full listing of Regional Coordinators. For the record, only RCs, Admins, and Wizards of the Coast employees are able to run a Trading Post, and most of those experiences will come from the RCs and Admins.
Byakugan01 wrote:
Since we are talking about rewards from the chap 6 adventure Halls of the Haunted Axe, I'm curious what sort of rewards I can issue to my players for playing in this adventure. Specifically, can I reward downtime days and renowned points for completeting it? Is so how much?
So... where is the printable version so that I can put a printed copy in the book for the future? I ask becuase when I try to print this, it only prints the left half of the content on the page itself... and the right half is... nowhere.
And it seems odd that a publishing company wouldn't have a printing stylesheet for exactly that purpose.
semifamous wrote:
imaginaryfriend wrote:
I am fairly certain it was put together by volunteer work by the campaign staff - specifically; the website manager (I vaguely recall one of the admins asking for help in redesigning the website for the new season). AL is run by 100% volunteers. We don't get paid for this.
Kalani wrote:
Renalis wrote:
The exchange rate is negative, Pauper. That's why your bank account is empty. 
imaginaryfriend wrote:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ZvCC_INs4ReV9QdjdERFVLREk/view?pli=1
While not actually an official PDF, as far as I can tell, it is a community created one that matches the text of the webpost.
Thanks. Saved and printing. I appreciate your help. =)
Ainulindalion wrote:
There is a chance to get a special book if the party do something special in exchange for the Axe but there is an information lacking in orrder to have "share experience" and fairness amongs the table.
The item allow the DM to choose OR to roll randomly. Which mean some very generous DM will allow there player a Iron golem, a CR 16. Other very restrictive DM will allow only Flesh golem a CR 5, while other more random will roll allowing anythign in between.
It is my understanding that the player chooses which book they gain, in much the same way that they can choose any +2 magic weapon of their choice.
Then again, after completing PotA, the party should be 14th-15th level. At this point, the only other adventures they could play are the final chapters of RoT, and (upon release) - out of the abyss. As soon as they hit 17th level however, they level out of range for even those stories.
As such, I am not terribly worried about the gear that characters get upon completing PotA. It won't be as problematic as people make it sound.
untill they release tier 4 adventure where many spellcaster could be running around with an Iron golem. I hope we'll be seeing tier 4 in season 3.
There might be 100k gold in the whole of Princes of the Apocalypse, so I'm not super worried, personally. I added it up a few days ago, though I multiplied the EP wrong (as 1e=2s instead of 1e=5s) where they occur. Stupid EP. But that won't increase the amounts by that much.
There's an additional ~30k GP in the remainder of the DDEX modules that've been released so far.
If one cherry picks the right other encounters/chapters from the other published modules, you might be able to get a group 200k. Which you still need to divide up among the group.
It seems unlikely that there will be a lot of people running about with Iron Golems in tier 4 modules. I have some faith that the campaign staff considered that possibility, too.
I like Clay Golems more anyway.
Ainulindalion wrote:
QwertyAzerty wrote:
QwertyAzerty wrote:
I am reading and re-reading the 30 levels of spells, but I still read it as a sorcerer learning free spells. Well, cheap spells. 30x50gp is only 1500 gp.
It says in the case of spontaneous casters that they can cast the spells. But it does not say they must 'unlearn' other spells to do so. It explains they 'learn' the spells in the description of what the cost represents. In essence, they are described as a separate pool of spells that are like wizard spells, but are available to spontaneous casters too.
Or are people saying that 'learning' a new spell somehow forces a sorcerer to unlearn another one? It is already established that a sorcerer who takes wizard levels does not have to unlearn sorcerer spells.
This spell reward would seem to be a general rule being overridden by a specific rule.
The rule being altered is the rule for "swapping spells when levelling".
This rule gives spontaneous casters the ability to swap multiple spells (instead of one), the fact that this option allows them to swap spells between levels, and the fact that these spells cost money.
Otherwise, it follows the same rule for swapping spells.
This option offers no advantage to season 2 spontaneous casters. It is only of benefit to wizards, season 1 spellcasters, and spellcasters of seasons 3+
Why put in a powerful item them do a backflip on it?
It's got all the hallmarks of the controlling DM - he just has to have the item in there because it has to be his way, but then he doesn't like the player responce so he attempts to control the players with a 'harpers are like terminators' bit.
It just reeks of a DM being bitter if the player chooses to keep the thing. Don't put in choices you'll be bitter about to begin with!
Noon wrote:
Is there text somewhere that I havent seen that describes that Kalani?
The page i read didn't say anything about swapping or being limited to season 2 spells or whatever.
Is there eratta for the eratta?
No. The part you are missing is p3 of the ALPG: you cannot use any rule outside your story origins "allowed rules".
Compare the Allowed Rules for the "elemental evil" story origin (p3) with those for the Tyranny of Dragons (p21 iirc). ToD does not include the EE Players Companion as an option.
Likewise, EE does not include HotDQ (appendix A). ToD does (although an editing oversight removed it in the ALPG v2)
Season 3 won't include the EEPC as an option either (it will have a similar document for season 3). EE characters won't be able to use the RoD Players Companion or vice versa.
Oh i guess i was misunderstanding the statement.
I understood yall to be saying 'PHB spells are excluded'. There were no bonus spells in ToD, so I didn't get why someone would point out the restriction. Relevant for future seasons.
Still think i am reading the reward differently than you though. I don't see where it says sorcerers have to unlearn spells for them. Seems easy for them to have used standard lanfuage if that was their intent.
Byakugan01 wrote:
Ahh ok. I don't participate on Facebook. I didn't realize Facebook posts counted as official rules sources.
Seriously, who decided to offer a list of AL alternate rewards and then let a huge oversite like that through editing?
People have been bitching about them needing to issue core book eratta for months now. They actually do something smart and make a reward menu which people have been asking for since season 1. But as written it pretty much breaks the Sorcerer and needs to be 'clarified' days later.
What would have been pretty awesome is if they had just 'clarified' that sorcerers can instead choose to gain '2 spells known of up to lvl 5, that don't count against their limit. Which would still be really awesome for sorcs without breaking them outright.
Byakugan01 wrote:
Noon wrote:
Ok, please don't think I'm trying to beat a dead horse here.
"This does not automatically grant the spells to that character, but the character may choose from those spells when preparing (or casting, in the case of spontaneous casters) their spells each day. Characters will need to follow the rules under “Copying a Spell into the Book” as found on page 114 of the PHB in order to complete their training, even if their class does not use a spellbook – this represents the cost of the education and practice of the new materials (classes that do not use spellbooks are not scribing these spells, but the cost reflects the effort needed to learn them)."
As a DM, this seems pretty straightforward. A sorcerer gains +30 levels of spells from the book. They may choose from these spells when casting spells each day.
in context, the part about not getting the spells automatically simply is referring to the cost and time required for the special training.
The blue text does not add anything. Except it seems to clarify that the spells break the normal rule of 'allowed rule sources' for ToD and soon Rage of Demons characters.
Byakugan01 wrote:
I'm glad that the Orcsplitter was given out in a tier 3 dungeon. Getting Hazi at early tier 2 was insane!
Also the Hand-Crossbow ranger in my party will be happy - he was concerned that he'd never find a magic hand crossbow. Of course - pretty much everyone in my party will want something from this and the good aligned barbarian/fighter might just want to keep orcsplitter as-is. Also, there are 3 dwarves in the party who might not want to part with it.. so there's that.
shivafang wrote:
Kalani wrote:
shivafang wrote:
QwertyAzerty wrote:
Byakugan01 wrote:
The issue was clarified here by one of the admins right after it got posted. Discussion here (and FB?) is what led to the 'blue part' being added to clarify the situation.
My first reading had me thinking they just gained the levels.... but I didn't think about it much since I don't play a sorc. I think the 'blue part' makes it pretty darn clear.
The wording has since been altered again to remove all ambiguity. Thanks again Greg for doing that.
Well horray for me actually getting a 'fix' done.
Thanks for hearing my feedback!
Byakugan01 wrote:
QwertyAzerty wrote:
Hazirawn is a +1 weapon (1d6 necrotic) when not attuned. I also throw in the healing negation as it isn't entirely clear if that feature requires attunement*
* the weapon is badly worded. States it requires attunement and lists abilities. Then states even with attunement it is still X. Iirc the part about healing negation is listed after that mess.
Ainulindalion wrote:
AlHazred wrote: